Self‐Assembly of a 3D DNA Crystal Structure with Rationally Designed Six‐Fold Symmetry

Abstract

Programming self‐assembled designer DNA crystals with various lattices and functions is one of the most important goals for nanofabrication using nucleic acids. The resulting porous materials possess atomic precision for several potential applications that rely on crystalline lattices and cavities. Herein, we present a rationally designed and self‐assembled 3D DNA crystal lattice with hexagonal symmetry. In our design, two 21‐base oligonucleotides are used to form a duplex motif that further assembles into a 3D array. The interactions between the strands are programmed using Watson–Crick base‐pairing. The six‐fold symmetry, as well as the chirality, is directed by the Holliday junctions formed between the duplex motifs. The rationally designed DNA crystal provides a new avenue that could create self‐assembled macromolecular 3D crystalline lattices with atomic precision. In addition, the structure contains a highly organized array of well‐defined cavities that are suitable for future applications with immobilized guests.

Resilient three-dimensional ordered architectures assembled from nanoparticles by DNA

“…Starting from the visionary idea of using DNA for organizing nano scale matter (1) and from the early demonstration of using DNA motifs for linking inorganic particles (2,3), DNAbased assembly methods have become a powerful approach to creating nanoscale structures, including planar (4-7) and threedimensional (3D) archi tectures (8,9) from DNA (6,(10)(11)(12)(13)(14), nanoparticle (NP) clusters (15)(16)(17), and 3D NP lattices guided by DNA grafted to particle surfaces (18)(19)(20)(21). The usefulness of DNAbased nanomaterial assembly approaches is particularly attractive due to the intrinsic limitations of lithographic methods for fabrication of 3D arrays and incorporation of wet chemistry-derived nanoscale objects.…”

DNA origami single crystals with Wulff shapes

“…Single crystals formed by atoms, macromolecules and colloidal nanoparticles have become an essential part of modern material science, including laser materials, semiconductor materials, magnetic materials, etc. 1 – 9 . Since the 18th century, the Gibbs-Wulff rule has been widely applied to explain and predict crystal habits formed by atoms, based on the principle of thermodynamic equilibrium which claims the minimal surface energy for crystal growth 10 .…”

Near-Atomic Fabrication with Nucleic Acids

“…An intellectual goal of DNA nanotechnology is to control the structure of matter in 3D to the highest resolution possible, so as to understand the connection between the molecular and macroscopic scales. Our building of DNA/RNA structures has extended from nanometer to micrometer scales in the past decade: A few DNA scaffolds including the tile-based 3D crystals − and the origami-based 2D/3D crystalline arrays , have been constructed with near-atomic resolutions and micrometer sizes, but these are still far away from being able to bridge the microscopic and macroscopic worlds. Complex constructs such as the origami-based rotary machines , and rotaxanes , have been successfully created, but more sophisticated nano- or microdevices with or without interlocking topologies are yet to be conquered.…”